The LA Setlist: Sep. 2-8, 2024

Prolific Jamaican dancehall doyen Shenseea transcends that genre by flirting with reggae, R&B and pop, while accumulating a list of collabs worthy of its own Wikipedia page. While her appearance on Kanye West’s 2021 song “Pure Souls” blew her up stateside, the 27-year-old (born Chinsea Lee) was making waves almost a decade ago, remixing compatriot Vybz Kartel’s “Loodi” and performing at Jamaica’s Reggae Sumfest. In between, Shenseea racked up features with Christina Aguilera, Masego, Major Lazer and more, while also featuring the likes of Tyga, Swae Lee (no relation), and Young Thug on her own releases. Known for making fun, celebratory records that simultaneously tackle universal struggles in everyday (if heavily Auto-Tuned) language, her sophomore album Never Gets Late Here, released in May, had Kaboom Magazine hailing Shenseea as “the leading Jamaican international artist of our generation,” bolstered by guest appearances from Wizkid, Rvssian, Anitta and others.

Tickets to the all-ages show at AXS.

Ostensibly, it’s amazing that six musicians would share a taste for Bent Knee’s almost perversely proggy art rock - Ben Swain and Courtney Swain founded the band at the Berklee College of Music, go figure. But persist and you’ll hear that, however self-conscious their song structures and arrangements, these mostly serve the song. Because, yes, unlike too many art/prog acts, Bent Knee has deeply emotive melodies and lyrics that largely humanize the noodly instrumental virtuosity and smarty-pants shifts of signature and velocity. Even so, they wouldn’t exist beyond casual jams were it not for Swain's astonishing voice: a swooping, trilling ‘n thrilling rollercoaster that repeatedly triumphs over what could easily become a technical exercise. Instead, these Bostonians are seven albums into a 15-year run of slowly swelling cult renown. Jolted by the 2022 departure of co-founding guitarist Swain and original bassist Jessica Kion, this year’s Twenty Pills Without Water album oozes anxiety and nostalgia.

Black Uhuru’s militantly anti-colonial, Rastafari rootsy reggae earned them the genre’s first GRAMMY Award (for 1983’s Anthem) and a half-century-and-counting career, albeit with a long largely dormant period after a contentious mid ‘90s fragmenting. Along the way, the much-changed Jamaican band has featured luminaries including legendary rhythm section and producers Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare; and dancehall great Junior Reid. With only singer/songwriter Derrick “Duckie” Simpson a constant, the band enjoyed their heyday in the 1980s, which included global breakout album Sinsemilla; Red, which NME ranked as the number 3 album of 1981; and the more electrofied Chill Out. While Black Uhuru finally returned with the generally well received As the World Turns in 2018, many will be at the cozy Venice West for the throwback hits that made Black Uhuru the top-selling reggae band of all time, second only to Bob Marley and The Wailers. Tickets at Ticketweb.

While sufficiently popular stateside to be headlining The Greek Theatre once again, Keane’s profile here is dwarfed by their almost omnipresent success in their native UK, where the foursome’s first four albums all hit number one. Their piano-heavy, almost guitarless Britpop-accented alt rock is hard to ignore if you have so much as a melodic bone in your body, although too sanitized and safe for some (keyboardist/songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley was approached to join Coldplay, after all). Keane is a band for listeners who prioritize songcraft over backstory and excellence of execution over edgy one-liners, tabloid headlines, or off-stage antics. After a considerable hiatus, the band returned with the more-of-a-good-thing fifth full-length Cause and Effect in 2019, but their creative high water mark remains ‘08’s positively luminous Perfect Symmetry, an exquisitely crafted album of Rice-Oxley compositions that connects through Tom Chaplin’s effortlessly ecstatic, instantly nostalgic croon. Tickets at EVENTIM.

During their mid 1970s through early ‘80s heyday, Earth, Wind & Fire was one of those chart constants that was easy to take for granted, their outlandish Afro-futuristic stage gear and lavish productions overshadowing a complex, nuanced stylistic mélange that made the most of irresistible melodies and rapturous musicality. Predictably, much has changed within EWF’s 9-piece lineup (plus horn section) since its 1969 founding in Chicago, although original bassist/vocalist Verdine White (brother of the band’s late founder/leader, Maurice White) is still aboard alongside lead vocalist Philip Bailey and percussionist/singer Ralph Johnson, both half-century veterans. What resplendently remains is a singular blending of R&B, soul, funk, disco, jazz, Afro-pop, and Latin genres that weaves three-dimensional fascination and longevity into simple, accessible melodies like those of enduring hits “Boogie Wonderland,” “September,” and “Shining Star,” which helped to make Earth, Wind & Fire one of the best-selling bands of all time. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

Natalia Lafourcade has been one of Mexico’s most successful singers for more than 20 years and, for the past decade, of increasing renown north of the border, too. This is not the first time that the celebrated lyric soprano has teamed with can-do-no-wrong conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil - their previous collab was three summers back. Since then, Lafourcade released the profoundly personal De Todas la Flores, a nature-inspired album – her first of original material in seven years – that spans Latin folk and jazz, cumbia, bossa nova, bolero, and son jarocho while refusing to rigidly adhere to the traditions of any of these. The New York Times was spot-on in describing Lafourcade’s music as “about processing darkness until it sprouts rays of light,” and De Todas la Flores is no exception: a sometimes sparse, raw 12-song expression, lamenting and intimate yet nonetheless aching with a yearning optimism and authentic, Earth-hugging appreciation. Tickets at the Hollywood Bowl website.

Over their 25-years, brutal Bostonians The Hope Conspiracy have rarely released a dud song. This may be partially down to THC actually not releasing too many songs, period, considering their borderline vanishing act between 2006’s Death Knows Your Name and this year’s triumphant return, Tools of Oppression / Rule by Deception. In all seriousness, their relative lack of output is maybe these genre legends’ secret to staying so authentically enraged, by only coming together as The Hope Conspiracy when inspiration truly strikes (which has apparently also helped to preserve a stable lineup since 2002). THC is OG, politicized hardcore punk untainted by the metalcore that’s muscled into the genre over its makers’ long years in the wilderness. Unusually, co-founding guitarist Neeraj Kane participates only in songwriting, his role filled on tour by Jim Carroll for 20+ years, which further suggests a band serving the music rather than expectations or tradition.

Tickets at Etix, with VIP Table option available.

Charismatic reggae singer/toaster Pato Banton’s bio reads like a gritty screenplay, including, at the height of his success in 2000, dropping everything to return to his native England to find the man who’d shot his son. Yet his 45-year career has increasingly conveyed a positive, often spiritual message. Emerging in the late 1970s from a working class Caribbean immigrant community of reggae sound systems where he’d become the preeminent MC, it was Banton’s performances on The Beat’s 1982 album Special Beat Service and UB40’s ‘85 Baggariddim that put him on the mainstream map, before his solo debut, Mad Professor Captures Pato Banton became a celebrated genre classic. By the mid-90s, Banton was topping charts with Eddy Grant’s “Baby Come Back” and a pair of Sting collaborations. Long based in SoCal, he hasn’t released an album in 16 years, but continues to perform while also serving as a mentor to fans. Tickets at Etix.

Early September often offers the best of LA’s famously fine weather, so expect quite a turnout for the return of the throwback I Love RnB Festival at Downtown LA’s Gloria Molina Grand Park. With R&B luminary Omarion and rap royalty Bow Wow both among the headliners, perhaps the pair, who released the joint album Face Off in 2007, will somehow collab for the occasion. Also high on the bill are NYC rapper Ja Rule; Atlanta R&B quartet Jagged Edge; singer Monica, who boasts three Billboard number ones; rappers Chingy and Soulja Boy; R&B singers Mario and Ginuwine; and “triple threat” singer/songwriter/dancer Mya, known for her hit collabs with the likes of Dru Hill, Beenie Man and Blackstreet. Tying things together nicely, special guest DJ and celebrated hitmaker Jermain Dupri previously signed three of this year’s I Love RnB acts – Jagged Edge, Monica, and Bow Wow – to record deals. Tickets at Eventbrite.

While her repertoire comprises jazz standards and jazzy covers from other genres, New York-based Jazzmeia Horn (yes, her real name) is keeping her chosen genre in the here-and-now with both vocalese-influenced vocal genius and evolving arranging talents. A graduate of the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts in her native Dallas, which also boasts Erykah Badu (whom Horn has covered) and Norah Jones as alumni, she honed her talents at The School of Jazz at NYC’s New School, influenced in particular by the inflections and phrasing of bop diva Sarah Vaughan. So, it was altogether appropriate that Horn broke through by winning the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Competition, followed by topping the Thelonious Monk International Vocal Jazz Competition two years later. She earned GRAMMY nominations for both of her first two albums before bringing her burgeoning arranging ability to bear on 2020 big-band opus Dear Love. Tickets at Eventbrite.

GRAMMY-nominated local folk duo The Milk Carton Kids are once again inviting their favorite songwriters to gather in LA, the epicenter of modern folk music, to share songs and stories at the Los Angeles Folk Festival.

Taking place at Downtown LA's 1,600-capacity The Bellwether, this mellow two-night gathering of rootsy talents is headlined on Saturday by the legendary Emmylou Harris. While she hasn’t released new solo records in years, at age 77 Harris continues to be in fine concert form. Sharing the bill will be Madi Diaz, Vera Sola, and Paper Wings.

On Sunday, The Milk Carton Kids themselves headline, promoting last year’s I Only See the Moon, an album that artfully splits the difference between their prior band and duo efforts, with just selectively expanded instrumentation around the pair’s guitars and voices. Rounding out the evening are Jonathan Russell (The Head and the Heart), Davíd Garza & Freaklórico, and Harrison Whitford.

Tickets at Ticketmaster.

With the dust still settling from Saturday's I Love RnB Festival (see above), Gloria Molina Grand Park will be immediately repurposed to host the even-further-throwback Freestyle Festival. Kicking off at noon on Sunday, September 8, this all-day 1980s freestyle and funk mega-concert features an incredibly stacked lineup of more than two dozen top-tier artists, plus craft food and beverages, art installations and more. Highlights will include Lisa Lisa, formerly of chart toppers Cult Jam (“Head to Toe,” “Lost in Emotion”), and Vanilla Ice, whose fame for mega-hit “Ice Ice Baby” is now almost matched by his presence on TV home improvement reality shows. Then there’s female freestyle trio Exposé, who scored a 1988 number one single with “Seasons Change”; and their peers The Cover Girls, who had Top 10 hits with “We Can’t Go Wrong” in ’89 and “Wishing on a Star” three years later. Other enduring favorites on the bill include Tiffany, Tone Loc and Young MC.

Tickets to the all-ages event at the Freestyle Festival website.